SEO Basics for Nonprofits - 5 Key Steps to Create Rank-worthy Content
I’ll let you in on a secret.
You don’t have to be a hugely successful corporate enterprise to create content that attracts a steady stream of visitors to your website. Whether you’re a nonprofit team of 1, 3, or 10, all you need for success is some basic knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and the willingness to push out quality content consistently.
SEO is a combination of different types of practices you can do to make your content more search-engine friendly. When content is search-engine friendly, it’s more likely to rank higher in search engines. This just means that more people will potentially see your content and visit your website.
SEO can seem very overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be. I’ve put together a guide of SEO basics for nonprofits that can help organizations just like yours get great results even if you’re a complete newbie. Let’s get started!
SEO BASICS #1: GET MORE OUT OF YOUR CONTENT WITH KEYWORD RESEARCH
Keywords are those terms that searchers type into the search box on Google or other search engines to find specific information. The first step to creating rank-worthy content is using the right keywords so that people who are looking for you can actually find you.
First, create a list of ‘seed keywords’ for your nonprofit niche. These are the very basic terms that you think people might search to get in touch with you (for example, local volunteer opportunities or health clinic near me) These can vary based on the group of people you serve.
Not all keywords are made equal. Some are more relevant to your niche than others. Identifying an audience persona can help you with figuring out which keywords will be relevant to your specific target audience. Here’s a nonprofit audience persona template I’ve designed to help you.
Next, input your keywords into a keyword tool like Google Keywords Planner (it's free!) which will give you an indication of search volumes i.e. how popular a keyword is. It’s tempting to use keywords that have the highest search volumes. But high search volumes mean a lot of competition. You can’t go too low either (under 1000) - that just means no traffic. Look for very specific keywords that are low competition.
You don’t necessarily have to use keywords only in your blog posts. You can use keywords in your website and your social media pages as well. Remember not to ‘stuff’ (overuse) keywords for the sake of adding them. Use them organically in places where they would naturally occur. Google penalizes sites that use keyword stuffing practices.
SEO BASICS #2: WRITE CONTENT THAT YOUR READERS AND SEARCH ENGINES WILL LOVE
Here are some basic but highly relevant steps you can take to prepare SEO-friendly content that’s more visible on search engines:
PREPARE A PLAN FOR YOUR CONTENT
Having some sort of outline or plan for your blog post makes it really easy to focus and stay on track. Here are some things to think about, with tips and hacks:
Create a working headline for your post: If you’ve done the basic keyword research work, you will have come up with a list of keywords that you can build blog posts around. Create a list of about 4 to 5 topics to start with and then finalize one.
It’s normal to want to re-write your title once your blog post is done. Aim to create attractive blog post titles that your readers will want to click. If your title isn’t appealing, your reader will not go ahead to read your actual content. Use this article as a guide. You can also make use of free tools like Portent, SEOPressor, and Answer the Public to generate blog topic ideas.
Decide how long you want your post to be: Anywhere in the range of 1500-2000 words of content per post is the sweet spot that you want to aim for. This range is considered to be the ideal length for content that readers will most likely share.
Break up your main topic into subheadings: Break up your main topic into subsections and create sub-headings for each.
WRITE SEO-FRIENDLY CONTENT
Here are some more SEO basics to follow when you start to write your content:
Structure your content into readable chunks: Always have one main heading/title, followed by subheadings for your subtopics. Use bullet points wherever possible. Stick to about 3 to 4 sentences per paragraph. Use short sentences.
Remember to make it visually appealing: Readers love websites that have visually attractive content. Large blocks of black-and-white text are no fun to read. Think about adding images for around every 300 to 500 words of text. Other things you can add are infographics, videos, and slide presentations. But make sure they are relevant to your text.
Push content out regularly: Aim to write content regularly depending on what works best for you. Maybe you can do 1 post a week, or 1 a month. What matters is that you're putting out quality content consistently.
CREATE HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT DESIGNED FOR HUMANS NOT SEARCH ENGINES
On the one hand, we definitely want to keep search engines happy. On the other, we also have to create content that satisfies our readers. If readers like your content they will keep wanting to read more. They will also want to learn more about your organization. If in doubt, always favor the reader over the search engine.
Happy readers = loyal visitors
Always place yourself in the shoes of your target audience and ask yourself how well you’ve addressed their search intent. If your blog topic is about how to select board members for your nonprofit, ask yourself whether you’ve answered every single question your reader will have on the subject. The more detailed the information you can provide that’s genuinely helpful, the better.
SEO BASICS #3: DEVELOP AN INTERNAL LINKING STRATEGY
Google loves expertise in content. So you want to have as much authoritative content on your website as you can and you also need to be more strategic in the way you publish content. Think about creating ‘clusters’ of content which is creating different pieces of content that are interrelated and can be linked to one another.
HubSpot’s blog post ‘Affiliate Marketing for Beginners’ is an example of clustered content. When you scroll down the post, you’ll notice HubSpot has created hyperlinks (called ‘anchor texts’) to redirect users to other blog posts on the same website. These blog posts provide more information related to the hyperlinked text.
The ‘cultivate your loyal online audience’ link redirects the reader to another detailed blog post called ‘How to Build a Loyal Audience Online’
Building a network of links like this for your website is a proven strategy to signal to a search engine that your business knows what it's talking about and is therefore worth ranking.
SEO BASICS #4: USE AN SEO PLUGIN
An SEO plugin is an extension that you add to the backend of your WordPress site to help you ensure that your blog posts are SEO-friendly. The two most popular plugins right now are Yoast SEO and RankMath. Yoast SEO has the advantage of being a reliable old-timer while RankMath is the new kid on the block. Pricing and feature-wise, RankMath offers lots of more features on its free plan. Both will look fairly similar at the backend. You can use either when you’re just starting out.
Once you install the plugin, you will see something like this at the bottom of your blog post on your Wordpress dashboard:
All you have to do is follow the recommendations to make the individual sections turn green as much as possible. While it's not necessary to use a plugin, installing one can really help you structure your posts better. You won’t end up missing basic fixes that could stop your post from being seen on Google, Bing, and other search engines.
SEO BASICS #5: SHARE, SHARE, SHARE
Once you’ve created your first piece of SEO-friendly content for your blog, it’s time to share it. Getting traffic to your online sites is 1 part writing and 9 parts promotion. Share the link of your post on your social media pages. Also, share it in communities or groups online where you think the audience is relevant.
Organic traffic generation through content works over the long term to generate results. But great content continues to bring in traffic while it's out there. Do your bit to promote your content so it gets seen by as many people as possible. The more people like and share your content, the more traffic you will keep continuing to get.